Thank you for your interest in volunteering at your parish or school. Whether you are a parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, parishioner or community member your involvement can make a positive influence in the lives of children. Children have a natural desire to learn and to admire those adults who choose to share their time and talents with them.
As adults it is our duty to nurture and protect children. That is why we take seriously the need to train every volunteer so that everyone can identify and create a safe environment where children will grow and thrive. Here you will find information to get you registered for VIRTUS training and on your way to enjoying the benefits of making a positive influence in the lives of children.
Download and Read the Policies & Procedures (English) (Spanish)
- Click here to download and review the Policies and Procedures for Addressing Sexual Misconduct manual. For the Spanish manual click here.
- Next, go to your parish, school, or agency office. Introduce yourself to whoever is responsible for the volunteers OR employees. (Parish priest, Principal, Director of the Agency or it could be the head coach of the team for whom you are volunteering or scout leader.) Tell them that you have downloaded and reviewed the Policies and Procedures for Addressing Sexual Misconduct manual.
- Receive and review two forms:
Volunteer/Employee Application Form used for Background Checks; and
Policies and Procedures for Addressing Sexual Misconduct Acceptance Form.
Fill out the two forms with your legal first, middle and last names and leave them with the person in charge to give to your coordinator to process through the Diocese. You will also need to leave a copy of your valid driver’s license or state issued ID as a part of the application process.
Once you have completed the forms and turned them into the person in charge, you will register with VIRTUS to open an account, choose a live training session and submit a background check. The background check costs $50 (additional fees may apply for those that have lived in other states). Those who are employees or with certain roles may receive a “token” from their parish to pay for the background check. If you are in financial need, but want to volunteer, speak to your Pastor, school principal, or agency administrator.
Registering for VIRTUS
Registering online
“Registering” means opening an account at www.virtus.org. You may only open ONE account. If you know that you already have an account, you may get your id and password by clicking on “Forgot your Password” on the first screen.
Go to www.virtus.org, Click on the Registration link in the left green area of the page. Begin the registration process:
Select in the dropdown list Covington, KY (Diocese)
Create your USER ID.
Create a password. Make a notation of this somewhere. You will need this every time you access VIRTUS. Do not use your email address as your user id. No two people can use the same user id, the Virtus system will alert you if someone is already using the user id you have chosen. User ID’s are case sensitive, Virtus recommends using all lower case letters and avoid spaces and punctuations. So if you have a printer, it’s good to print a copy now for yourself. If you have changes to your email address, remember to update those changes in Virtus as that is how you will receive monthly notifications from Virtus of a new bulletin.
Continue filling out your information.
Select the Primary location that handled your paperwork. (If you work for the Diocese select your place of employment as the Primary location and where you volunteer as secondary.)
If you volunteer at your home parish and at a high school, please select the home parish.
You may select more than one secondary location. Please keep your list of locations current online as they change. Substitute Teachers list “Substitute Teacher” as the primary locaiton and the school where you will be sub-teaching as secondary.
Select your role in the Diocese.
Select Parent only if you do NOT wish to be a Volunteer and do not want to receive the monthly bulletins.
If you wish to be a Volunteer, select Volunteer.
Continue your registration.
If you are a coach, catechist, scout leader, contracted janitor, please select that option.
Select Yes or No when you get to the page about attending a session.
If no, select the session you wish to attend.
If you have already attended a session, you will have the option to select which one you attended.
If you attended in another Diocese, please pick that Diocese when given that option.
If you register on-line after having attended the class, please email the approximate date and place to [email protected] or write it on your Acceptance Form.
Your account will not be readily seen until all your paperwork has been processed. Please do not register a second time. You should receive a notification from Virtus that you have registered. It will come from [email protected].
Your account is active after:
(1) the Acceptance Form is recorded,
(2) your background check has been processed on your Virtus account
(3) your class attendance has been verified.
An email from Virtus will be sent to you when your account is open. It will include your user id and password. Be sure that your spam blocker is setup to accept emails from [email protected].
Please register only ONCE. Opening more than one account causes confusion and keeps you from remaining compliant.
If you need to change your contact information or locations, enter your id and password. Click on “update my account”. Make the desired change. SAVE.
Now you are ready to begin your monthly bulletins. One bulletin will be posted at www.virtus.org on the first Sunday of each month. You have 30 days to complete the bulletin.
If you go beyond 30 days, your TRAINING tab will disappear letting your “locations” know that you are not currently volunteering.
If for some reason, you have fallen behind 1 or 2 bulletins, have a valid reason why your account is in Suspension and you need to resume volunteering immediately, you may make the request through your school or parish.
If you miss 12 training bulletins, your account will be inactivated. In order to re-enter the VIRTUS program, and be eligible for employment or volunteer opportunities, you will need to reprocess your background, fill out new paperwork, catch up on bulletins, modules or other requirements.
If you have any other questions about the Diocese of Covington’s VIRTUS program, please contact Marylu Steffen at [email protected].
Registering and Have Already Attended a Class
The system asks, “Have you already attended a Protecting God’s Children Session?” You say, “Yes” and choose the class you attended from the list presented. This list will only show locations in the Diocese of Covington. If you have attended training but in another diocese, choose the first choice.
The first choice under identifying an attended session is “The session I attended was in another Diocese.” You choose the Diocese first; then choose the session attended. A copy of your training certificate will need to be sent to [email protected].
The second choice under identifying an attended session is “The session I attended is not listed.” At this point you will be given the opportunity to type the information you believe is correct for the class you took in the Diocese of Covington. A copy of your training certificate will need to be sent to [email protected].
Your account is active after:
(1) the Acceptance Form is recorded,
(2) your background check has been processed, and
(3) your class attendance has been verified.
An email from Virtus will be sent to you when your account is open. It will include your user id and password. Be sure that your spam blocker is setup to accept emails from [email protected].
Please register only ONCE. Opening more than one account causes confusion and keeps you from remaining compliant.
If you need to change your contact information or locations, enter your id and password. Click on “update my account”. Make the desired change. SAVE.
Now you are ready to begin your monthly bulletins. One bulletin will be posted at www.virtus.org on the first Sunday of each month. You have 30 days to complete the bulletin.
If you go beyond 30 days, your TRAINING tab will disappear letting your “locations” know that you are not currently volunteering.
During the “open months” of April, August, and December those wishing to resume volunteering will have the opportunity to complete ALL missed bulletins. Your training tab will automatically appear and you can catch up and continue monthly bulletins going forward.
”If for some reason, you have fallen behind 1 or 2 bulletins, have a valid reason why your account is in suspension and you need to resume volunteering immediately, you may make the request through your school or parish.”
If you have any other questions about the Diocese of Covington’s VIRTUS program, please contact Marylu Steffen at [email protected].
Registering Without Signing Up for a Class
It is important that you register immediately whether you select a class or not so that your paperwork may be credited to you.
When you get to the page that asks you to sign up for a class, scroll to the bottom of the page and click on “submit registration”.
The system will then say, “You did not select a training session. Do you want to select a training session at this time? Say “NO”.
The system will then say, “If you do not select a session now and are required to attend one, you will need to come back to this site, log in and select a session at a later date.” Say, “Okay”.
The system will tell you that you have successfully registered.
Your account is active after:
(1) the Acceptance Form is recorded,
(2) your background check has been processed, and
(3) your class attendance has been verified.
An email from Virtus will be sent to you when your account is open. It will include your user id and password. Be sure that your spam blocker is setup to accept emails from [email protected].
Please register only ONCE. Opening more than one account causes confusion and keeps you from remaining compliant.
If you need to change your contact information or locations, enter your id and password. Click on “update my account”. Make the desired change. SAVE.
Now you are ready to begin your monthly bulletins. One bulletin will be posted at www.virtus.org on the first Sunday of each month. You have 30 days to complete the bulletin.
If you go beyond 30 days, your TRAINING tab will disappear letting your “locations” know that you are not currently volunteering.
During the “open months” of April, August, and December those wishing to resume volunteering will have the opportunity to complete ALL missed bulletins. Your training tab will automatically appear and you can catch up and continue monthly bulletins going forward.
”If for some reason, you have fallen behind 1 or 2 bulletins, have a valid reason why your account is in suspension and you need to resume volunteering immediately, you may make the request through your school or parish.”
If you have any other questions about the Diocese of Covington’s VIRTUS program, please contact Marylu Steffen at [email protected].
Changing a Class Choice
If you need to change a training session you have previously chosen:
Enter your user id and password.
In the green column on the left side of the screen, click on “Instructor Led Training”. You will see your first choice.
Choose “Select New Session”; then choose the one you want now.
The pop-up will say, “Are you sure you want to attend?” Choose “okay”.
The same procedure will work to REMOVE a class you do not want.
Your account is active after:
(1) the Acceptance Form is recorded,
(2) your background check has been processed, and
(3) your class attendance has been verified.
An email from Virtus will be sent to you when your account is open. It will include your user id and password. Be sure that your spam blocker is setup to accept emails from [email protected].
Please register only ONCE. Opening more than one account causes confusion and keeps you from remaining compliant.
If you need to change your contact information or locations, enter your id and password. Click on “update my account”. Make the desired change. SAVE.
Now you are ready to begin your monthly bulletins. One bulletin will be posted at www.virtus.org on the first Sunday of each month. You have 30 days to complete the bulletin.
If you go beyond 30 days, your TRAINING tab will disappear letting your “locations” know that you are not currently volunteering.
During the “open months” of April, August, and December those wishing to resume volunteering will have the opportunity to complete ALL missed bulletins. Your training tab will automatically appear and you can catch up and continue monthly bulletins going forward.
”If for some reason, you have fallen behind 1 or 2 bulletins, have a valid reason why your account is in suspension and you need to resume volunteering immediately, you may make the request through your school or parish.”
If you have any other questions about the Diocese of Covington’s VIRTUS program, please contact Marylu Steffen at [email protected].
How to Find a VIRTUS Training Class
A schedule of upcoming Virtus classes can be found by clicking here.
VIRTUS Bulletin Schedule & Directions